We fought through torrential rain and hurricane force winds, desperately trying to shield our equipment from the elements while we sprinted out to the car in Thousand Oaks on the morning of Elly and Daniel’s University Club (University of California Irvine) wedding. We got onto the 101 South and watched in awe as the huge trees on the sides of the road were shaken and torn by the wind like a rag doll in the mouth of our dog. Our windshield wipers screamed in rhythmic futility as sheets of water ceaselessly poured over our car. Having some knowledge of the location, we knew the ceremony was planned to be in the lovely outdoor garden area of UC Irvine. We didn’t say anything as we started our journey, but we were both wondering “how is Elly going to react to all of this?”
We made the exciting (to put it mildly) drive down to the house in Newport Beach, where Elly and her bridesmaids were getting ready. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the wind obliterated our umbrellas less than 10 feet from our car and blasted our faces with sand. We stopped at the front door and exchanged the look of two adventurers, about to jump from the safety of an aircraft into the unknown wilderness below. In our wildest dreams we could not have imagined what we would find behind that door.
Elly was fine. No, not just fine. “Fine” would suggest that she was just “keeping it together,” gracefully taking bad news in stride while the makeup artist tried to deal with puffy eyes from that morning’s tears. That was not Elly. Elly was radiant, and beautiful as she laughed with her friends in anticipation of her big day. Standing in that room, (aside from one light hearted joke from Elly about the “storm of the century outside”) you would think that she had not looked outside all morning. We did not see one sad tear fall all day. The same held true for Daniel.
Truly, they were and are an amazing, classy couple with a solid grip on what mattered most at their wedding. We felt blessed to play our part in their big day.
– Marianne + Joe
PS. Wondering what it was like outside? Check out this awesome phone photo we snapped on the way to Newport Beach:
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by Marianne Sanada